Retrospective - Mandy and David Reception

In the Fall of last year, a coworker flew to the east coast to get married. So what do you do with all your friends back in Seattle? Have a massive party for them, of course. And what if those friends happen to be a bunch of local musicians? Well, guess you don't need a DJ.

Mandy approached me about shooting this reception party at The Piranha Shop, an event space in SoDo near the stadiums. It was dark dark dark, but fun fun fun. The newlywed bride has an aversion to being photographed herself (there's a great one of her flipping me off), but I had a great time shooting this half-event, half-concert, all-party extravaganza.

A Change in Seasons

It's basically spring. Seattle is stupid warm. Thanks to Uncle Sam and a tax return, I picked up a new lens that bears the unfortunate distinction of being referred to by the Nikon faithful as the "cream machine." Here's a few random photos from the last couple weeks. 

A Night in Pierce County

So. Looks like this "weekly blog post" thing is proving more difficult to keep track of than I thought. Also, I usually want nothing more when I get home in the evenings to shut off digital connections to the outside world, which never helps. But this is a common sentiment these days.

Anywho, my dad and I spent a night in Gig Harbor and basically wandered around shooting photographs for a couple of days while taking in the local atmosphere. It's not as stinky in Tacoma as it used to be.

I took my Fuji X100 and pretty much left it in a low-contrast black-and-white mode for more toning latitude later.

A Long Weekend in Philadelphia

So. It's the middle of winter. Winter has come. I take a couple of days off of work to go on a vacation to where else but historic, scenic and absolutely frigid Philadelphia, PA.

The lady was on a job hunt out east, so I tagged along. Sure, I was on a plane during the Superbowl (live Twitter feed was either a blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it). At least I was staying too far from Punxsutawney to really lament missing Groundhog Day. But one thing that stood out to me about Philadelphia as a Seattleite is just how friendly everyone really is, although the slogan "City of Brotherly Love" does not apply to the honking of one's horn in moments of dubious need.

Anywho. Had a great weekend of food, East Coast craft brews, and great company in a city with some serious history. Makes me want to go exploring a little more often.

As before, larger versions visible on my Flickr page.

Techie nerd alert - everything shot on a Fuji X100, bought used with a janky screen. Perfect travel camera, although I never had less than two batteries on me at once. Shot RAW+JPEG, though as the rest of the internet has recited time and time again, rarely needed RAWs. Most of these are just OOC japegs with minor levels adjustments.

Engagement Shoot - Tomio and Caitlane

Alright. Blogging. This isn't the first time I'm attempting to do this on a regular basis, so let's hope this time, I'll have some more success. Or motivation. Maybe closing my Facebook tab will help me focus.

In any case, in my efforts to blog more, I'll be updating posts here on at least a weekly basis, and for a while, it'll be a chronological hop-scotch between shoots I'm particularly happy with from past years, and also recent events. Who knows, maybe I'll even learn something about my own work this way. Hope springs eternal.

Anywho. On to the important bit: This shoot.

This is one of those shoots that, having known and been fairly close to these people for a long time, promised to be more fun than stress. They're low-key, I'm low-key whenever possible, and we were just looking at spending a couple of hours around Seattle. Even easier, they had two locations picked out - one a little more outdoorsy, near the Montlake Bridge, the other a little more urban, near South Lake Union.

The locations were perfect, the weather was fantastic, and Tomio and Caitlane were obnoxiously adorable and photogenic. I had a blast with these two. Enjoy!

P.S. - if you're into all the techie stuff, check that out after the images, and larger versions of all of these are visible on my Flickr.

 

Techie Nerd Alert: One of the things I was most stoked about on this shoot was traveling light - most importantly, no speedlights. We caught the daylight perfectly, didn't have a ton of time to spare, and I enjoyed the spontaneity of the whole evening. Sometimes, less is more. I used one Nikon D700 and traded between my trusty standbys, a 35mm f/2 and 85mm f/1.8.